Traditionally the birth of Maximinus is stated as having been either in AD 172 or 173.
Maximinus Thrax was a Roman soldier-emperor who spent his reign on campaign. Maximinus was a commoner born in Thrace about 173. With the support of his troops, Maximinus became emperor by revolting against Severus Alexander. He was emperor from 235-238. Members of a Roman legion killed Maximinus and his son Maximus.Despite him being known as Thrax (the Tracian) it is actually believed that he was from Moesia, the son of a Gothic father and an Alan mother.
Maximinus was mean. But his military achievements mark him out as mean peasant, which many historians describe him as. Extraordinarily brave and physically overwhelming he was the ideal soldier. Though the historians were clearly right in their opinion that Maximinus lacked what it needed to be an emperor.
The future emperor's career seems to have been spent in a long series of relatively minor military appointments until Sevarus Alexander campaigns against the Persians, when Maximinus began to be trusted with important responsibilities. As fighting flared up against the Germans on Rome's northern frontier, Maximinus was placed in charge of raising and training soldiers. These young soldiers were fiercely loyal to Maximinus, whose forty years of harsh military service, placed him in complete opposite to the young, uncertain, twenty year old Alexander. The troops were ready to revolt, and Maximinus was ready to lead them. The mutiny came in early March 235 at the military headquarters along the Rhine near Mainz. Maximinus was proclaimed emperor. Alexander found himself deserted by his troops and was killed.The historical tradition has been universally unkind to Maximinus. His arrival on the throne was similar to that of Macrinus, the only previous emperor who had not been a member of the senatorial class at the time of his accession. Yet unlike Macrinus, Maximinus was a career soldier from a backwards province who had little or no formal education. Maximinus came to be described as a ruthless, semi-barbarian tyrant, and by late antiquity he was regularly referred to with the ethnic epithet Thrax, "the Thracian."
Maximinus/Thrax ruled from 235a.d.- 238 a.d.Members of a Roman legion killed Maximinus and his son Maximus.Severus Alexander
http://ancienthistory.about.comHerodian, books 7-8 (available in the Loeb Classical Library) Historia Augusta, Life of the Two Maximini (not trustworthy; also available in the Loeb Classical Library)
Zosimus, New History 1.13
Traditionally the birth of Maximinus is stated as having been either in AD 172 or 173.
Maximinus Thrax was a Roman soldier-emperor who spent his reign on campaign. Maximinus was a commoner born in Thrace about 173. With the support of his troops, Maximinus became emperor by revolting against Severus Alexander. He was emperor from 235-238. Members of a Roman legion killed Maximinus and his son Maximus.Despite him being known as Thrax (the Tracian) it is actually believed that he was from Moesia, the son of a Gothic father and an Alan mother.
Maximinus was mean. But his military achievements mark him out as mean peasant, which many historians describe him as. Extraordinarily brave and physically overwhelming he was the ideal soldier. Though the historians were clearly right in their opinion that Maximinus lacked what it needed to be an emperor.
The future emperor's career seems to have been spent in a long series of relatively minor military appointments until Sevarus Alexander campaigns against the Persians, when Maximinus began to be trusted with important responsibilities. As fighting flared up against the Germans on Rome's northern frontier, Maximinus was placed in charge of raising and training soldiers. These young soldiers were fiercely loyal to Maximinus, whose forty years of harsh military service, placed him in complete opposite to the young, uncertain, twenty year old Alexander. The troops were ready to revolt, and Maximinus was ready to lead them. The mutiny came in early March 235 at the military headquarters along the Rhine near Mainz. Maximinus was proclaimed emperor. Alexander found himself deserted by his troops and was killed.The historical tradition has been universally unkind to Maximinus. His arrival on the throne was similar to that of Macrinus, the only previous emperor who had not been a member of the senatorial class at the time of his accession. Yet unlike Macrinus, Maximinus was a career soldier from a backwards province who had little or no formal education. Maximinus came to be described as a ruthless, semi-barbarian tyrant, and by late antiquity he was regularly referred to with the ethnic epithet Thrax, "the Thracian."
Maximinus/Thrax ruled from 235a.d.- 238 a.d.Members of a Roman legion killed Maximinus and his son Maximus.Severus Alexander
http://ancienthistory.about.comHerodian, books 7-8 (available in the Loeb Classical Library)
Historia Augusta, Life of the Two Maximini (not trustworthy; also available in the Loeb Classical Library)
Zosimus, New History 1.13